Sit down and shut up. Why? Because, folks, today, have we got a rumble for you — a debate that has been brewing for ages, both sides entrenched and livid, and both positions questionable. Indeed, for as long as humans have assembled to enjoy live music this argument has raged, a salvo of beer cups and shouted derision all around:
Is it OK to stand and dance at a concert when everyone around you is sitting?
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Let’s consider this rationally. Both sides make good points. On the one hand, if you buy a ticket to a concert and stand-able music is played, you should be able to dance and sway and throw your hands in the air as generations before you have done — rocking out should be your prerogative. On the other hand, if you spend $132 on a ticket to a concert, you should be able to see that concert, and if the audience is in a sitting mood, who are you to block the sightlines of the 56 people behind you?
Inside, we argue both sides of the issue — have a look, and let us know how you feel.
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SITTING
That chair is there for a reason
By Kevin Williams
Hey, knucklehead! Down in front! Do you think the show is any better because you’re standing?
Aw, poor babies. Are your feelings hurt? Too bad. Now sit the hell down, because your concert-going experience is in no way enhanced by standing.
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Here’s why.
Intensity: This quality isn’t defined by whether you sit or stand. I have been rocked harder by Chicago Symphony Orchestra Mahler concerts than metal bands. Musicians get off on crowd engagement and applause. There has been only one concert at which I have stood that I couldn’t have imagined wanting to sit: Electric Wizard at the Double Door, eons ago. Because there were no seats. But also because it’s easier to hold your arms in the air, devil horns fully extended, when standing.
Aesthetics: Trust me, seeing a field of rhythm-less, droopy-bottomed hipsters twitching spasmodically makes you wish for enough mouth guards to keep them all from swallowing their tongues. Not a pretty sight. If the music is danceable, that’s one thing. When Sea & Cake played Orchestra Hall, some of the crowd, seized by the magic, found space along the edge of the room and shimmied to their hearts’ content.
Enough, already: Standing is like a trap. If the band goes on longer than expected, what then? It can’t be any less intense, right? And so you stand. And stand. And stand, because sitting at that point is like giving up or something. But you could be sitting, ya’ dummy.
Fairness: The person sitting behind you might not want to stand. By choosing to stand, you force the person behind you to stand. Then the person behind him or her stands and, voila, you have a room full of people who aren’t standing because they’re reallyreallyreallyreally into the music. They’re standing because they have to, in order to see, sort of a Dork Domino Theory. But the person behind you might subscribe to the Sit It, Ya’ Knucklehead Theory.
Like me. Because my worldview at concerts is like my driving worldview: I don’t care what you do, just don’t do it in front of me.
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STANDING
Nothing says ‘Rock!’ like your feet
By Christopher Borrelli
First, let me just say that I’m a bit of a hypocrite. I’m here to defend standing at concerts and dancing when everyone around me is sitting on their hands, but I probably wouldn’t stand myself. I prefer not to have eyes on me; I have witnessed enough heated back-and-forths between concert standers and sitters to know sitters always prevail. Peer pressure is powerful.
And yet, if you need to dance, even if it’s right in front of me and I’m sitting, you should dance all night. There are exceptions, of course: Don’t dance during a CSO concert, and don’t dance during any performance in which the band is sitting.
Anywhere else, dance.
Dance at inappropriate times. Be that wacko in the front row who won’t sit down. The “live” in live performances already feels as though it’s bleeding from a million tiny cuts. Video screens, vocal tracking, teleprompters.
Unless you’re in a venue where sitting isn’t a real option — a Double Door, for instance — it’s easy to feel removed from performers these days.
The next time you’re in the balcony of the Chicago Theater or Riviera and someone in the front row is standing and you’re annoyed and wondering if he knows everyone behind him is sitting, remember where you are. No matter how much the concert industry has done in the name of convenience, a live show is still not hermetically sealed entertainment.
What’s that? If you just sat we wouldn’t be arguing? True. But none of this is going away. As older performers acquire generations of fans — many of whom have reached the age where sitting is preferred, and many others for whom concert-going remains a leave-your-seat experience — concert venues say awkward confrontations between standing fans and fuming sitters are just getting worse.
What’s that? Standers should get their own section? Well, there are forward thinking concert halls and performers: For years, Bruce Springsteen has set aside thousands of tickets every show for a general-admission, standing section on the floor. Ravinia — which prefers that “audiences make their own decorum,” according to Nick Pullia, director of communications — is experimenting with a dance floor in the pavilion. Which is what The Old Town School of Folk Music has done for a while now in its staid lecture-hall-shaped performance space.
What? Majority rules? Thoughtful. But wasn’t it buttoned-down proletarian thinking that gave birth to pop music in the first place? Remember when rock was about stepping out of line?
Besides, a quick survey of venues suggests enforcement is random and etiquette murky. For instance, according to a venue executive, the United Center prefers a loose policy, dictated section by section. If the upper reaches of the arena are seated at AC/DC and two guys are standing, that suggests an unspoken pact among between the audience, and those guys may be asked to sit. Likewise, according to a spokeswoman for the Chicago Theater, standing during a show at the Loop landmark will be assessed on “a case-by-case basis.” They used to write rock operas about bureaucracy like this.
Not everyone is lame. At the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, which launched a family-friendly concert series a decade ago, special events manager Marilyn Baysek has a quasi-policy toward standers. She lets them stand.
“Musicians want audiences to stand,” she said. “They feed off the energy of an audience getting into it.” She believes a true stander can navigate the risks just fine: “If you stand and no one is, ask yourself, ‘How badly do I want a deviled egg hurled at me?'”
Yes, energy and engagement are a two-way street — even when the performer’s knees are older than Brian Wilson. I’m reminded of the time I saw Wilco, and a man in the front row ate a sandwich, and Jeff Tweedy stopped mid-song to ask, “Do I come to where you work and eat a sandwich on your desk?” I’m reminded of my 14-year-old self, who thought quiet, obedient audiences were something other cultures endured because they weren’t democracies. I’m reminded of the woman who recently told me she tried to dance at an Eagles show and security sat her down.
Which is sad.
Surely, if you’re attending an Eagles concert in 2009, you need your exercise and you probably won’t be mall walking the next morning. Next time, stand your ground.
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Stand up? Sit down? We have a choice
Want to debate? Don’t want to bother? Here’s a list of shows that will be no-brainers for the stand and sit crowds.
Nickelback with Papa Roach:
They might as well remove the seats from the First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre, for as often as they’ll be used.
6 p.m. Friday, 19100 S. Ridgeland Ave., Tinley Park; $28.50-$99; livenation.com
Trey Songz:
Standing and screaming, though the singer’s fans will get tired at some point. Hysteria is hard work. 7 p.m. Sunday, Regal Theater, 7900 S. Stony Island Ave.; $20; ticketmaster.com
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Pearl Jam:
Flannel. People will be wearing it. And they will be standing.
7:30 p.m. Sunday and Monday at the United Center, 1901 W. Madison St.; $66; ticketmaster.com
Red Red Meat:
It’s Millennium Park, dude. Have a seat. 6:30 p.m. Monday, Randolph Street and Michigan Avenue; Free; millenniumpark.org Elvis Costello:
Look for standing on selected cuts, but expect to keep that Ravinia Festival seat nice and warm;
8 p.m. Wednesday, 200-231 Ravinia Festival Drive, Highland Park. $22, $55; ravinia.org
Staind:
The Congress Theatre has seats, but you’ll even be standing up there. Angst does that for some reason.
6 p.m. Thursday, 2135 N. Milwaukee Ave.; $39.50-$42; 888-512-7469
Lil’ Wayne:
Should be a mixed bag, as some hip-hoppers like to sit and head-bob.
6:30 p.m. Aug. 28, First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre; $29.75-$79.75; livenation.com
Steely Dan:
The buzz is immense for these potentially killer shows, but the crowd will be sitting down for most of them.
Aug. 31-Sept. 4, Chicago Theatre, 175 N. State; $76-$226; ticketmaster.com
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DON’T SIT THIS ONE OUT …
Passionate concertgoers of both postures can take our Tribune poll at chicagotribune.com/sitorstand. And write to us at [email protected]